Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Wayne State University School of Medicine, 3901 Chrysler Service Dr, Detroit, MI, 48201, US.
Department of Psychiatry, Emory University School of Medicine, 69 Jesse Hill Jr Dr. SE, 30303, Atlanta, GA, US.
Biol Sex Differ. 2024 Mar 28;15(1):28. doi: 10.1186/s13293-024-00606-2.
Traumatic events experienced in childhood can lead to increased risk of cardiovascular disorders in adulthood. Black Americans are disproportionately affected, as they are at increased risk for experiencing childhood trauma and cardiovascular diseases in adulthood. One of the hypothesized mechanisms of this association is through long-lasting dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system, a hallmark physiological biomarker of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is twice as prevalent in women compared to men.
Ninety-one, majority Black American children, aged 9 were recruited to be a part of our longitudinal study of child development at research centers in Atlanta, GA and Detroit, MI. Resting HR was measured through a electrocardiogram (ECG) recording using the Biopac MP150. Self-report measures of violence exposure and PTSD symptoms were administered by research staff.
Children with more violence exposure reported increased PTSS as well as lower resting HR. Regression analysis showed evidence of sex modifying this relationship, (B = -0.64, p < 0.05), such that the association between resting HR and PTSS was stronger in girls than in boys. In our exploratory analysis with standard clinical cutoffs of resting HR, the normative HR group was found to significantly moderate the relationship between violence exposure and PTSS in boys, (B = -2.14, p < 0.01), but not girls (B = -0.94, p = 0.27).
In our sample of primarily Black urban children, we found that violence exposure was associated with slower, more adult-like HR, that girls showed greater PTSS associated with slower HR while boys did not, and that girls with lower than normative HR showed significantly higher PTSS compared to girls with normative HR. Our sample's demonstration of psychological consequences in addition to the physiological implications could provide new information about a psychobiological sequelae of violence exposure.
儿童时期经历的创伤事件会增加成年后患心血管疾病的风险。非裔美国人受影响的程度不成比例，因为他们在儿童时期经历创伤和成年后患心血管疾病的风险都增加了。这种关联的一个假设机制是通过自主神经系统的持久失调，这是创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）的标志性生理生物标志物，女性比男性高出两倍。
91 名大多数为非裔美国人的 9 岁儿童在佐治亚州亚特兰大和密歇根州底特律的研究中心参加了我们的儿童发展纵向研究。通过心电图（ECG）记录使用 Biopac MP150 测量静息心率。暴力暴露和 PTSD 症状的自我报告测量由研究人员进行。
暴露于更多暴力的儿童报告 PTSD 症状增加，静息心率降低。回归分析显示，性别对此关系有修饰作用，（B=-0.64，p<0.05），因此，女孩的静息心率与 PTSD 症状之间的关联强于男孩。在我们使用静息心率标准临床临界值的探索性分析中，发现正常心率组显著调节了男孩中暴力暴露与 PTSD 症状之间的关系，（B=-2.14，p<0.01），但在女孩中没有（B=-0.94，p=0.27）。
在我们的主要是黑人城市儿童样本中，我们发现暴力暴露与更慢、更成人化的心率有关，女孩表现出与较慢心率相关的更大 PTSD 症状，而男孩则没有，并且心率低于正常值的女孩比心率正常的女孩表现出更高的 PTSD 症状。我们的样本不仅表现出生理影响，还表现出心理后果，这可能为暴力暴露的心理生物学后果提供新的信息。
